Many providers of consumer goods and services, and other advertisers, offer coupons, and/or other marketing devices such as discount certificates, price guarantees, and vouchers, to consumers in an effort to attract and/or encourage business.
Traditionally, coupons have been distributed in “hard-copy”, typically printed, form by various means, including, but not limited to: by mail; in newspapers; in magazines; in flyers and inserts; at store front and/or product displays; and/or as attachments to store receipts (i.e., printed on the back of a receipt or appended to a receipt). More recently, coupons have been offered/distributed using electronic means such as, but not limited to: networks of computing systems, including public networks such as the Internet; through and/or on web-sites; by e-mail; as electronic coupon attachments to electronic receipts; and as electronic coupon attachments to transactional data, such as, but not limited to transactional data from and/or displayed by, banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions
Many coupons offer significant discounts to the consumer holding, and meeting the terms of, the coupon. Therefore, coupons can represent a significant expense to the coupon provider. Typically, the coupon provider is willing to accept this expense to meet specific coupon provider goals, including, but not limited to: to help build up a customer base; to get consumers into a store; to retain customers who find a lower price for an item from a competitor; to lure customers away from a competitor; and/or to help clear excess inventory and/or to boost sales of a given product.
Currently, coupons are typically distributed or “pushed” by providers of consumer goods and services, i.e., coupon providers, to the consumers. Consequently, currently, the offer represented by the coupon is typically generically defined by the coupon provider in advance of coupon distribution and the coupons are then typically made available to large numbers of consumers in a “blanket” distribution manner. As a result, using current coupon distribution methods, many coupons are created and distributed to consumers that have no interest in, and/or need for, the product or service that is the subject of the coupon. In addition, using current coupon distribution methods, in many cases, the coupon being offered does not represent a significant enough savings to entice the consumer to purchase the product and/or service that is the subject of the coupon. In addition, using current coupon distribution methods, in some cases, the coupon being offered represents a savings in excess of the amount necessary to entice the consumer to purchase the product and/or service that is the subject of the coupon, thereby over discounting the product and/or service and costing the coupon provider revenue. In addition, using current coupon distribution methods, a coupon provider obtains relatively little marketing data from the coupon program because, using current coupon distribution methods, there is little consumer feedback as to why a given coupon was redeemed and what factors influenced the consumer's decision. In addition, using current coupon distribution methods, a coupon provider has little or no control over how much a coupon program will eventually because the actual cost of the program is not known until the number of coupons redeemed is tallied. Consequently, using current coupon distribution methods, there is considerable waste and inefficiency and the current situation represents a disservice to both coupon providers and consumers.